Brodie

The Michael House stable has approx. 15 horses to race at Addington tonight! As far as I can recall Michael has never had so many starters at Addington before. This team is the ones that he has had racing at Palmerston North and Southland where we all probably think the class of horse is inferior to Addington class! It is going to be very interesting to see if his horses are competitive as a lot of them were probably past their best in Canterbury before, but they will be very fit. Good on him for lining them up!

Gamma was stating that the Allstars would improve the Dunn beach trained horses as well! It can not be just a straight track! Is is different feed, different work or different supplements and remedies?

So the question needs to be asked? What are the AllStars doing differently that can improve a horse even trained by the a premiership winning trainers the Dunns?.

Gamma, no it is not just about the money, there is also the enjoyment of the sport! However the harness industry has gone backwards over the last few decades and the erosion seems to have set in! Auckland was once a very strong city with strong fields but now it is stuffed due to many decisions. As I have said many times the $ is not the most important thing but I enjoy the challenge as per the previous slogan, “you know the odds now beat them”.

Not the tote though! Well done Marky! Depends what you call significant The thing is why should a citizen of NZ be treated like a criminal when they are doing nothing wrong ? The TAB business plan is flawed and needs amending. They would make far more by encouraging the wagering on harness rather than discouraging!! They are being kept profitable by overseas racing and sports betting! The younger ones are betting on Sports nowadays as there is no incentive to have a crack at harness racing!

Are you serious Marky? So prey tell us all how putting $2k or so into a tote pool of say $8k is going to be the answer???????? Yeah a lot of common sense in your statement!

It is not getting $20 on, it is netting $20 profit lol

Yes of course I would rather watch a non winners race as I would more likely have had an investment on it, as I would never have one on “The Race by Grins”. Rising Star I didnt think had to be a young horse does it????? I am pleased you get some humour from “The Brodster” we sure need it after the last couple of years.

The restrictions on punters is a handbrake to harness racing. Why dont the TAB advertise the fact that they will only accept bets from losing punters and be transparent. When they restrict punters to netting $20 on a Top 2 or Top 4 bet then they may as well get rid of the option. The TAB is a gambling agency that offers odds but only to people they want to! At the end of the day they are causing more harm than good as they are not encouraging new punters to the industry and without the punters, racing is going to die. They may well restrict winning punters from winning large amounts however they will never stop them from winning and they are driving people off the industry

“The Race by Grins” on the face of it was advertising for this GRINS drinks company that personally had never heard of before! The funding of this race to my mind did not make much sense financially for owners being almost certainly a way to lose money. I could not see how some of those starters were ever going to win against the AllStar horses. Stylish Memphis even though she drew one was always going to struggle as she has not been beating much in Oz, and mares struggle against the boys!

To be fair many of the holidays have very little meaning to us Mikey! This new public holiday that Labour is bringing in matariki or something like that is not needed, especially at the moment with business struggling! No we probably dont need racing every day but was just pointing out the more enterprising the Australians are allowed to be.

Why would I be oncourse? Was out helping a Christchurch hospitality business! Was it worth being oncourse?

very interesting that Mark Purdon got a hefty fine and a pretty long suspension from driving! The whip rule at the moment continues to be totally stupid and unrealistic! Self Assured won due to Purdon giving the horse extra persuasion which broke the current rules and yet the horse gets to keep winning position! Personally do not think Purdons whip action was excessive and why wouldn't you when there is a total stake of $900k it was the same when Rasmussen won the NZ Cup a few years ago! The current whip rule is still stupid and needs amending but we all know that HRNZ wont do anything as they rushed out and changed it when there was no pressure whatsoever to do anything!! They need to grow some and start making the right decisions before it is too late.

Southwind Ardern is not the same horse under Mangos training compared to when AllStars had him last year! The Ozzie horse went phenomenal and is certainly a rising star by the look of it. At least it was put into the race, the ones at the back had no show unfortunately !

Mustve been a helluva lot of very late money? Just before close there was 19k in the win and 11k place but turnover on the tote was poor for all of the hype! Do not think too many were that enthused by “The Race by Grins” as it was basically a shuffle of money between the corporates and the wealthier owners and that is what it is always going to be. At the end of the day if you enjoyed “The Race by Grins” then that is great! For some of the horses entered it seems an easy way to lose $37,500 as they had next to no chance ! What I would say is Southwind Ardern has gone back to the horse it was before the AllStars took over the training before the Cup carnival. Not sure how it could go backwards so much?????

To be fair Forbury it was always going to be the way, with the horses and drivers involved! Keep posting as most people enjoy your “no punches pulled” comments. Yeah, personally think “the race by Grins” hype was totally over the top for what it was, but the Trackside presenters are paid to get everyone excited! Did it work, probably not! Give us a non winners race any day!

“The Race by Grins” all over for year! one more year and we get the second edition! Just watched it and the Trackside employees very enthusiastic for “The Race by Grins”! Won by the $2 favourite, some people are easily excited lol. Good on everyone that enjoyed it. Not a very big crowd oncourse although the supporting races were very poor betting races! Worth a go for harness racing if it engenders interest, but by the amount of tote betting there was very little interest for the average tote punter in NZ with only $30k combined in the win and place pools. Probably Be a lot of fixed betting but most serious punters wouldnt have bothered!!!!!

Seems a bit unfair to my mind! Great to see things being tried to improve harness racing but jury out on whether it does anything apart from shuffling some money around the corporates or wealthy owners! Good publicity for this GRINS outfit as well I suppose! Will it introduce anyone new enthusiasts to racing in NZ? Probably not but it is something different and something to watch on Easter Eve! Wondering why Ozzie have plenty of meetings on Easter Good Friday and we have NO MEETINGS! We must be a lot more Religious!

Of course there are some great Ozzie trainers and hard working and successful. The Ozzie system works far better than NZ due to the no. Of horses and bigger population so easier to place a horse. On average the Kiwi horse is far superior to Oz as the Ozzies breed a lot of crap mares to crap stallions, it is what it is. There have been many champion Ozzie harness horses but you would expect that, however they do run up against a lesser class of horse. At the end of the day we are entitled to our opinion and Ozzie harness will last a lot longer than NZ harness the way things are here currently. Enjoy your postings Gamma!

They said they would get $37,500 back which is the minimum any get back. Good way to lose $37,500 without competing

Gamma, you can have your opinion on whether Oz trainers are better than Kiwi trainers however the fact remains NZ horses are far better. Spellbound is a a case of where racing a lesser horse in Oz, or are you saying that the Dunns are nit up to the same class as the Oz trainers?? Of course there are horses that are exported Oz that have plenty of improvement in them!

Gamma, I am well aware that there are far more opportunities and easier to place horses in Oz than NZ! I do not believe that Ozzies are better trainers than NZ trainers, quite the opposite in fact! NZ horses are just far better on the whole, and the fact is that they show this when they transfer to OZ! We export a lot of horses especially when they have met their mark here and they go over and clean up early on, due to the lower class of horse they are racing against. I would consider myself to be a smart punter Gamma over a long period of time! I may not be your standard orthodox punter, but my method has been very successful for myself!

I am not on here to ague with you MarkyMark when Brodie is on the money! The commentator said it”was a big win”! Cranbourne is not a back paddock venue and it was a $10k race! My heading was “tongue in cheek” and I dont expect it to be a champ, but just pointing out how a below average horse here can go over there and bolt in against the Oz horses, making it now 2 from 2! Too hard for most of our horses to make money for their owners in NZ so that is why they are being sold to Oz!

Yes you are correct I do very well from punting! Could I do a lot better if I was allowed on for what I would like, of course! Yes I am restricted because the NZ TAB dont want to allow me to win and that has been the case for many years! If they allowed me to MarkyMark I would be turning over 7 figures without much trouble. I do not rely on harness racing punting for a living, I have far more lucrative investments. The race at Cranbourne was not a mugs race, go and do your homework!! It was a $10k final with Daggy Lamb going a 1.58 mile rate over 2080m on a track that is smaller than ours over here generally. It won by several lengths and was had on,

Firstly MarkyMark, where did I ever imply that I was a professional punter?????? Avid fan? Not sure about that nowadays due to several reasons! Of course there are heaps of examples of NZ horses going over to Oz and winning and that is the point!!! Daggy Lamb would have struggled to win another race here however it went over and won like a champ. It was at Cranbourne in Victoria and it was a race chock full of form being a final and not a low class race! Anyway MarkyMark, start a topic so I can see what you have got?